The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has commenced the training of 900 unemployed youths in different skill acquisition in Edo as part of the efforts to reduce poverty and check unemployment in the state.
The Director-General of the organisation, Dr Nasiru Argungu, represented by the State Coordinator, Mrs Ayo Edegbai, declared the training open on Friday in Benin.
Argungu said that the participants would undergo intensive and practically-based training for three months.
He said that the training was designed to equip the beneficiaries with up-to-date marketable skills, such as fashion design, beauty therapy, aluminum fabrication, shoe-making, ICT, solar energy and hairdressing, amongst others.
According to him, this orientation for the Basic National Open Apprenticeship Scheme was taking place in all states of the federation.
The NDE boss said that 38,700 unemployed persons would undergo training in skills of their choice.
“In Edo, 900 persons from the 18 local government areas were being trained in vocational skills at the rate of 50 per local government,” he said.
He recalled that NDE had held a series of similar programmes in the state to fight the enormous danger of unemployed and abject poverty.
He urged the trainees to take advantage of the opportunity to acquire skills to actualise their dreams, saying that every skill is vital to humanity and economic development of a nation.
He thanked the Oredo Local Government Council for providing the space for the training and its cooperation with NDE over the years. (NAN)
